Absorbent sweeping composition



g 2,805,204 Patented Sept. 3, 1957 ABSORBENT SWEEPING COMPOSITION George Howard Adams, Jr., Center Valley, Pa.

No Drawing. Application June 21, 1950, Serial No. 169,510

1 Claim. (Cl. 252 -88) The present invention relates to absorbent sweeping compositions for use in removing various kinds of oil, grease and sticky substances, whether liquid or semi-solid, from floors and other surfaces.

. An important object of the invention is to provide a composition of the character indicated while will be highly efiicient for its intended purposes, economical to manufacture, easy to store, package and use, and which will be non-inflammable, non-corrosive and harmless to the surfaces to which it is applied.

A related object of the invention is to put to commercial use the kiln flue dust which is at present -a waste product of the Portland cement industry.

I have discovered that such kiln flue dust, which will be hereinafter more particular identified and described, can be treated in a simple and economical manner to function as, or become an important ingredient of, a composition of matter which has superior absorbent properties and is thus highly useful in cleaning floors and other surfaces of oily, greasy or sticky substances that have become coated on or even well soaked into them.

In the manufacture of Portland cement, raw materials such as limestone, cement rock, shale, clay, marl and sandstone, the principal chemical components of which are silica, alumina, ferric oxide, lime, potash and magnesia, are separately crushed, dried when necessary, stored, and pulverized to a fineness at which about 90% to 95% passes a 200 mesh sieve. The materials are then blended in various proportions according to the particular kind of cement desired, e. g., normal, moderate heat, high early strength, low heat, sulphate resisting, air-entraining, mortar, etc. A typical blended mix weight 65 to 75 lbs. per cu. ft. and is bluish gray in color.

The mix is heated in a rotary kiln to bring about chemical and physical changes and form clinker. Discharged with the products of combustion from the kiln is flue dust, which is a fine powder having, prior to the present invention, no commercial use or value so far as I know. In fact, the presence of flue dust in the kiln discharge is objectionable because it prevents free liberation of the gases into the atmosphere. The industry is put to considerable trouble and expense to separate the dust so that only relatively dust-free products of combustion are discharged. The separation is accomplished in various ways, as by electrical precipitation of cyclone separators, and the dust is hauled away and discarded in dumps as waste.

The dumps are exposed to the atmosphere and to the elements, and the flue dust in them becomes weathered, which produces chemical and physical changes in the dust. Thus, a typical fresh flue dust analysis of may be found, after three to six months or more of weathering, to have an analysis of SiO: 7 I 13.3 A1203 5.1 FezOs "2.8 CaO s p v 34.2 MgO p 2.0 S03 p i 5.2 K a 1.0 Water and volatile 'at 220 F. 13.7 Loss on ignition at 1650 F. 22.6

It is this weathered flue dust, having more or less the compositionlast above stated, that I prefer to use as the principal ingredient of my product.

7 It is to .beunderstoodthat the foregoing analyses are typical and that the formulas are not critical. The ingredients. and proportions 'will vary somewhat in relallOII t O different plants and diiferent conditions of plant operation, choice of raw materials and circumstances and duration of weathering. r Weathering produces hydration. This includes addition ofwater of composition and also hygroscopic water,

i. e., water which is very loosely held at the surfaces of the particles. The loss .on ignition of the weathered material includes all the water that did not pass off at 220 F the SO; depending on thelength of time the material is Heated. Thus, CaSOi, MgSO4 and K2SO4 may show little. loss of S03, and K2CO3 may show little loss of CO2- Upon weathering, the flue dust becomes loosely cc merited. In the practice of my process the weathered material is crushed to pass a 5 mesh sieve so as to produce a particle size appropriate for brushing or sweeping over a surface to be cleaned, and then mixed with small quantities of Portland cement and, if desired, a mineral oxide The pigment may be any of the coloring agents commonly used with Portland cement, e. g., cobalt oxide for blue, brown oxide of iron for brown, synthetic yellow oxide of iron for bufl, chromium oxide for green, red oxide of iron for red, or black iron oxide or Germantown lampblack for gray or slate effects. The pigment is substantially inert in my product, but it is useful and desirable because it helps to prevent tracking, and of course it results in a more uniformly colored finished product.

When pigment is omitted, the foregoing formula should be revised to add the pigment weight (0.5 lb.) to the Weathered flue dust weight, making the latter 92 lbs.

Water is sprayed onto this composition and is thoroughly mixed therewith to dampen it sufiiciently to cause the Portland cement and pigment to adhere to the flue dust particles. In this step of the process the particles grow somewhat in size. The mixture is allowed to set and harden for a period of twelve to twenty-four hours or longer. Then the mixture is dehydrated, as by processing it in a rotary dryer, after which it is preferably screened to pass a 5 mesh sieve and be retained on an mesh sieve. The particles larger than 5 mesh are returned for crushing to become an ingredient of another batch, and the fines which pass the 80 mesh sieve are returned for mixture with weathered dry flue dust for use in a succeeding batch.

The final product, that which passes a 5 mesh sieve and is retained on an 80 mesh sieve, has a loosely packed Weight of about 35 lbs. per cu. ft. It is used by strewing Percent Itincludes also practically all the CO2 and all or some of in a depth dependent on the quantity of oil, grease or other foreign matter which is to be removed. The comppsition is then swept or briushedover and through the foreigfl matter uh'tii the latt' l thereby, If the compositio ri app ears 1d ieach th'e limit o f 'absorptive capacity and foreign matter still remains o' n' or in the surface, the compositionis removed, as' b'y sweeping it up, and fresh composition is applied.- This'is cpnt inueduntilall or substantially all of the foreign mat tfer i's absorbed and removed with the composition.

L l-he weathering which has been described is an important step in the process inasmuch as I- have found that fresh ilule dnst-,-newly discharged from the'kiln, does not give good results when used as ali ing r edieiit'in' my eampositibnl However, the weatherifig need not be practiced by x sin thee- 3st taths q iqn .Qf-Iaifl. a the elements, i, w as; be, ljwestnerifig. Entirely satisfacthry resiilt's can b'obta by a, liicialfweathering practiced bysubjectingthe p1 e flue du'stftd periodic alterlayingpr spfinlding with water and plowing or t irnihg', overjto ,eiipose the int'riorl of the pile to wetting and subsequent drying and to keep the material from 6 3 111 nofa solid r'rias's. This, is will be recognized, is the q'iilvalentof natural weathering and henceis within the hroad principles ofstheinventionll In the appended claims I employthe termsv weathered and weathering" asb clly generictobothjnaturaland artificial weathering. Vfehfwhile I prefer. to use Portland cement kiln fluegdust as. the basic ingredient of the compdsition prodee this material has ,therequired chemical compoy is av ailableat extremely low cost, it is possible to syn esizethis ingredient by mixing together its coniponents'in substantially the number and proportions hereinabove stated.

bassinet @119 absorbed In the foregoing specification I have disclosed the use of weathered Portland cement kiln flue dust admixed with Portland cement. This is the preferred embodiment of the invention, with or without a pigment ingredient, as has been explained. However, I have found that under some conditions, and for the removal of some substances, the weathered Portland ce'rn'eh't'kiln flue dust alone, without additiomof Portlandcementor pigment, is quite satisfactory. T's-produce this embodiment of the invention it is e s ary. p toJs ind nuantitvr fw ather d fl dust to proper particlesize f brushing or sweeping over a surface to be cleaned,v T ere'iuabove proposed size, by which the particles will ass a 5"m'esh sieve and be retained on an meshjsieve; will be found satisfactory. This embodiment of the invention is to be deemed within the scope of the broader of the appended claim.

I claim:

A non-oleaginou s preparation for absorbing oil, grease and the likefrom floors and other surfaces comprising weathered Portland cement kiln flue dust ground substantially entirely to particle siie which will pass a 5 mesh sieve and be retained onan 80 mesh sieve with a thin surface coating of Portland cement adhering to the particles.

liefereri ces Cited in the file of this patent H n UNITED STATES" PATENTS 7 ,958; nbehreia t July 23, 1901 1,749,317 Clievalier u n Mar. 4, 1930 FOREIGN PATENTS 476 Great Britain June 1, 1905 

